High Tech Baby Monitoring? 481
MrGibbage writes "I'm a long time geek and about to be a first time father. I'm setting up the baby room now, and I'm looking for a high-tech (and low cost of course) baby monitoring system. I'm already running a linux web server over DSL and I'd love to push the video to that in order to see the video on my cell phone when we are out and the babysitter is home....uhh....babysitting. How will I watch the video while in our house? What about on my iPaq? Laptop? Something else? What about audio? Any systems that integrate both? The Baby-R-Us systems are ridiculously low quality and not expandable at all and therefore not really an option. The last slashdot article about video surveillance is a few years old."
i call bullshit (Score:2, Funny)
Re:i call bullshit (Score:3, Informative)
story author probably wants to spy on his neighbor's teenage daughter(s).
Probably, but since it seems those babysitters are always popping up on shows like "When nannys attack" on Fox, and having two kids myself, I can understand the uneasiness.
In either case though the quickest way may be to go with an X10 [x10.com] setup (yes, THOSE guys). For under $200 you can get 3 wireless color cameras setup (cams, receiver, transceiver, remote, batt pack, motion sensors, etc) that will record when motion activated to e
Re:i call ------- (Score:3, Insightful)
Security does not mean paranoia, but monitoring is perfectly legitimate.
Except when it is your boss monitoring you at work. I understand that a baby is different than a computer or a 3 million dollar digimahookey that you work on.
But really where can anybody draw the line between "security" and "privacy".
If you are going to monitor your baby make sure the babysitter knows. They may be offended and not
There is too much stupid joking lately. (Score:5, Insightful)
There is too much stupid joking lately. Look at the beginning of most stories. Maybe 5 or 10 people are making adolescent jokes. Not only do they join every story to act like adolescents, they act like socially-challenged adolescents.
High-tech security is a valuable subject, no matter what is being monitored. Someone asks an interesting question, and a few immature people attack the author of the question!
I came here hoping that someone else had already done the engineering, and I could learn from that, and a few people waste my time.
--
Bush: Borrowing money [brillig.com] to give to the rich.
Words of Advice from a Proud Father. (Score:3, Insightful)
Okay Rookey, some words of advice. Check with your mom, and or dad on the following:
The first child can come at any time, all the others take nine months.
Heavly consider a Epideral for child bearing, its liquid La Mosss. Other wise, your wife will never let you forget what she went through.
If your wife comments on her looking fat. LEAVE THE AREA IMMEDIATLY!!! Life is to short for what's going to happen next.
Raising children is not a spectator sport. Its h
Re:Words of Advice from a Proud Father. (Score:3, Informative)
Another problem with epidurals is that the woman is numb and has a hard time feeling the child pass through, a a result tears occur due to "over-pushing" that take a few months to heal (no sex for a few months
Uhhhhmmm Yeah, me too (Score:5, Funny)
I'm sure we'll see it as a mpg on the newsgroups very soon....
Re:Uhhhhmmm Yeah, me too (Score:5, Funny)
Aaaahhh that brings back memories. When I was fourteen, I decided I'd like a glass of water and when I walked into the living room, the babysitter was going at it with her boyfriend. I didn't get my glass of water but it was pretty educational :D
Re:Uhhhhmmm Yeah, me too (Score:5, Funny)
It's never to early (Score:5, Funny)
Don't (Score:5, Insightful)
If you start watching the baby on your video-phone, you'll get unhealthily paranoid. Select a baby-sitter you trust, and relax a bit. You'll have enough stress with a new kid as it is - you'll need to learn to let go when it's sleeping.
Human infants are quite good (admittedly not perfect) at not dying when left alone when sleeping.
Re:Don't (Score:5, Insightful)
And what is worse, is that you'll end up fullfilling every little need he have, and he'll get used to that.
This will make you life miserable later.
And, you are about to loose most of your friends. Having a brand-new dad bragging about his baby is already bad enough. Now, if you have the gut to piss everybody with a real time feed to its bed...
Re:Don't (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh, yes, how horrible it would be to respond to all the needs of your own child, who can't speak, can't even *move* without your help...
Please, PLEASE don't take this advice, new dad. There's no better way to ensure that your baby has no motivation to learn to communicate with you than to ignore it. If a baby cries, it's because they need something, period. They don't cry for no reason. If they're lonely, or scared, that's a need... and one they simply can't fulfill themselves.
Instead, take a look at "The Baby Book" by Dr. William Sears... it dispells all the myths about it being "good" for tiny helpless infants to be left alone to cry their lungs out.
(BTW, they do get used to having their needs met... the result is, they trust you to meet their needs, and then learn independence faster, because they know they can come to you if they need something. Kids who are ignored the way the AC suggests become *more* dependent and clingy. Just in case you don't have time to get the book... but I seriously recommend it anyway, just as a general instruction manual.
Re:Don't (Score:5, Insightful)
We did that and they always found time to sit for our kids whereas others couldn't get them. When my daughter got older she ended up sitting for the two families which paid well, but more importantly, treated her with respect. Now in college, she corresponds with both her own babysitter and the kids she babysat for.
Re:Don't (Score:5, Interesting)
She's happy with the lump sum payment, and we get a for-sure babysitter for 1 year.
Re:Don't (Score:3, Insightful)
That said, I think it's a great idea to make sure you appreciate your babysitter and they appreciate you. They practically ARE a member of the family, a very important one. But lets remember, they're also usually 15-18 year old kids.
Re:Don't (Score:5, Insightful)
The upfront payment has other problems with it, but not being legally enforceable in a court of law isn't one of them.
Paranoid (Score:5, Funny)
So, I guess what would be useful is a button on the monitor, that when pressed will give the baby just a little electric shock, to cause the child to move or flinch enough to be seen over the LCD
Re:Paranoid (Score:5, Funny)
Baby motion sensor (Score:4, Interesting)
It monitors the baby's movement (even breathing while sleeping). If there's no movement for 20 seconds, it'll sound an alarm. That could provide some peace of mind.
Re:Baby motion sensor (Score:4, Interesting)
I did some web research on SIDS. It's a diagnosis of exclusion, which means that the pathologist can't figure out what the hell happened, so he calls it SIDS. One theory, that I came to agree with, was that SIDS was caused by rebreathed carbon dioxide. The air doesn't circulate well enough around the child, so the carbon dioxide level in the child's blood goes up and up. What to do about it? For my child, I bought a crib with slats on all sides (no solid ends), a well-fitting mattress with a well-fitting sheet, and put the kid in there with nothing else (except clothing). No toys, blankets, bumper guards, NOTHING. Of course, put the child on his back. Do these measures work? For my sample size (3), they worked.
Re:Don't (Score:5, Insightful)
Our daughter is now about to turn one year old, and I can still be standing right over the top of her and have to strain to see if she's moving when she's sound asleep. So you may find the video induces more panic than it relieves, unless you're just worried about her hopping over the side of the crib and escaping when she's three weeks old. We have a baby monitor from Babies 'R' us (audio only) and that's exactly what we needed. If we're at all worried over and above that audible reassurance, then one of us walks into the room to check on her. (This often has the reassuring effect of awaking her, at which point she makes it brutally clear she was quite all right, thank you very much, until some tactless git walked into her room and woke her up.)
The main thing you should probably be worried about is that her parents are not too casual and not too paranoid. Either one is bad. As far as the baby's concerned...go to the SIDS [sids.org] home page and read up, and follow up if you fit any of the high risk categories. Otherwise, enjoy -- it's a blast.
agreed. (Score:3, Insightful)
i've had a play with wireless cameras and there's two problems: if they don't work in the dark, they're of zero use (you won't be putting them to sleep in a well lit room: or if you are, you won't be doing it for long!) and you *will* be freaked out by the lack of movement.
if you fancy playing, get an old machine and hook up a cheap webca
Re:Don't (Score:3, Interesting)
Therefore the theory is that if the baby is sleeping on the back, then they aren't inhaling the fumes. I don't know if there's merit to that idea, but it's an interesting thought.
SIDS is also a rather generic term that they use, "Sudden Infant Deat
Re:Don't (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Don't (Score:5, Funny)
Plus, the kid will find a way around it. He'll hook up a VCR to the video camera playing a tape of him sleeping in a continuous loop. By the time you get suspicious and notice this, he's long gone thanks to Keanu Reeves' daring high-speed chase under the crib.
Re:Don't do it! (Score:2, Insightful)
I pity you. Children are an incredible joy, but they aren't for the selfish. You need to give a lot of yourself to your family but the rewards are awesome!
I have 3, two boys and a girl 5, 3 and almost 1.
Re:Don't do it! (Score:5, Insightful)
While taking care of the child once it arrives may be selfless, the reasons for choosing to have them in the first place are almost always centered around the parent rather than the child.
Being CF is fine, just don't be a jerk (Score:3, Insightful)
We always knew we wanted to be parents "when the time was right," and it took a hiccup of nature to convince us this was the right time. My son is 18 months old, an absolute gem, and my wife is expecting out second (and likely last) child.
I preface with this background because during the time before having children, my
Re:That argument's a setup (Score:3, Insightful)
That seems to be an impossible challenge. You're asking for a general imperative that is specific to the individual, but isn't itself subjective?
So you're ruling out arguments like "I want to pass on my genes" (a poor argument, but just an example) as well as "well, that's why we have _reproductive_ organs" as we
Re:Don't do it! (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't suppose you ever took the effort to consider your point of view, and both your wishes, before getting married? Or are you one of those idiots who "gave in" so your wife would quit whining about kids?
You didn't make a mistake, you're just an idiot.
An old standard (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:An old standard (Score:4, Funny)
I agree, anyone who would even consider leaving their child alone for even a second should be at the top of CPS's hit list. Gonna cook, have the kid with you, or move the kitchen appliances into the kids room. Hafta poop, take the kid with you, or have a commode put in the kids room, or better yet, bond with the kid by wearing diapers yourself. I'm sure your employer won't mind you taking 18years of maternity/paternity leave. Wanna have some, uh, intimate time with your SO, do it right there. Junior will be two young and out of it to really grasp what's going on anyway (that and like your likely to get any anytime soon after just having a kid, yeah right). Grandparents, brothers, sisters, close friends, ALL not good enough to watch YOUR little one. Hell, leaving your kid with a grandparent is almost as bad as leaving your kid in a car in the Arizona desert with the windows rolled up and a quad processor Opteron running inside with a RAID array with 15k/rpm scsi drives.
You my friend are brilliant and your insights make it obvious that you are wise beyond your years. I was wondering what kind of car to get to replace my old beater that broke down for the last time. Having been enlightened by your wisdom, I shall now walk the 12 miles to my office. I shall also stop wasting money purchasing my food and simply hunt the small animals in my neighborhood for nourishment. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Re:An old standard (Score:3, Interesting)
Wear the kid on your back, once they're old enough (can sit up on their own). Until then, set up the Kick & Play in the kitchen.
Hafta poop, take the kid with you, or have a commode put in the kids room, or better yet, bond with the kid by wearing diapers yourself.
Diapers are passé. Ye
Re:An old standard (Score:5, Insightful)
You know what, I'm sick of this crap everytime somebody brings up this subject. Take a look at the whole question. He's talking about monitoring while a babysitter is there, not about ignoring the child while both parents are home. As a parent, I can attest to the fact that you need to get away every once in a while so that you aren't tempted to hand your child over to scientific research or something like that. The problem is that there are very few trustworthy babysitters, and those that we have been able to find are always in high demand. Personally, I share others' sentiments that it is much better to get someone you can trust than it is to monitor, but I also understand the frustration and anxiety of leaving your child with someone else.
"Old fashioned" parents also had to leave their children with babysitters, but you can bet that if the technology to monitor the baby (and babysitter) had been available, they'd have considered using it too.
Re:An old standard (Score:5, Insightful)
The clue is in your own words.
He has a babysitter babysitting.
He does NOT need to be watching the baby while the babysitter is there - that's WHY he has a babysitter.
What an excellent way to show the babysitter just how much they are appreciated - "Watch my baby, but I'll be watching you...".
Besides, if he and his wife are out for the evening to get a break, then watching the babty over the cellphone is not exactly having a break, is it?
Re:An old standard (Score:3, Insightful)
I cannot think of a single circumstance that I would leave my children with an untrustworthy babysitter. Parent poster is right : "being there" is the best way to monitor. High tech remote observation gear changes nothing : If I can't trust the person, they don't mind my children, period. I'm not going to spoil a nice romantic evening out with the wife gathered around a cellph
...and go crazy! (Who modded as insightful?) (Score:5, Interesting)
But I certainly agree with other comments that remote web monitoring is not the way to go here.
Re:An old standard (Score:5, Interesting)
How the heck is this Insightful? This is the best way to end your marriage. You need to get out once a week with your spouse, and you'll need someone to watch your kid when you go out.
If you have relatives in the area, they make the best babysitters. You know them, plus they probably want to see the kid as much as they can without imposing on you.
Re:An old standard (Score:4, Insightful)
I wonder if anyone who modded this up has any experience in parenthood. "Being there" for 24/7 is the best way to raise a sociopath. Your kid needs to spend some time outside of the maternal/paternal umbrella. Otherwise your kid will never learn how to interact with other human beings and when you're gone, it will turn into someone like Anthony Perkins character in "Psycho" [movieforum.com]. Of course, it is your parental duty to be with your kid most of the time, but you will also hurt your kid if you never leave it with other kids and other adults.
Re:An old standard (Score:2)
Re:An old standard (Score:3, Insightful)
Technology is not the ultimate solution for everything. Your baby was carried by it's mum in her belly for 9 months. You should not abandon it once it is born. Instead, read up on Attachment Parenting [google.com] and keep the baby close, 24/7. It will cry far less, you'll greatly reduce the risks for SIDS, and your baby can continue to get an early start at learning about the world around it; it will pick up far more of the world around it when kept clos
From CNN... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:From CNN... (Score:4, Interesting)
I have news for you (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly, your biggest problem at this point will be getting enough sleep. everything else will be likely be lovely.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I have news for you (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless your bedroom is on the other side of the house, just keep the baby's door open, your door open, and you'll hear the baby cry. The only time I use my baby monitor now is if my daughter's napping in her room (upstairs) and I'm in the basement, so I can hear her when she wakes up.
To effectively spy on the babysitter you'd have to have cameras all over the house. If you're that paranoid about the babysitter, then don't have a babysitter. Babies go to sleep at 8 (if you have a regular schedule), that's plenty of quiet time with the wife before you have to go to bed. Rent a movie and sit and snuggle on the couch.
Re:I have news for you (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I have news for you (Score:2)
Wait-- you're on to something. All you need is a stap, a video camra, and a baby able to hold a couple kilos on its head.
No need (Score:5, Insightful)
Each time the baby isn't coughing/crying/breathing heavily, it induces fear there is something wrong.
Each time the baby is coughing/crying/breathing heavily, it induces fear there is something wrong.
Surprisingly, babies are fairly dependable to continue existing without constant monitoring. Rather unsurprisingly, it takes a huge amount of energy for constant monitoring by adults.
Re:No need (Score:5, Informative)
We also found the monitor very useful for the second child. She has the loudest cry of any baby I've heard, even when she's just settling herself. With her door and ours open upstairs, just transitioning from one sleep cycle to the other would wake us up. With the doors closed, we couldn't hear her well enough to respond in an emergency, so instead we turned the monitor on *downstairs* and closed her door. That way, the sound we heard was at just the right level to wake us up in an emergency.
Re:No need (Score:5, Interesting)
The baby monitor I use has a "your baby isn't breathing" alarm.
This means that I can totally relax unless the alarm is ringing.
I don't need to hear anything coming out of the monitor if the alarm is silent.
This has given me great peace of mind and helped me relax no end.
As long as SIDS is largely unexplained, these monitors will be of great value.
Re:No need (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No need (Score:5, Informative)
It's called a WIFE! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It's called a WIFE! (Score:5, Interesting)
I skiped the whole thing and started with step kids who are already teens.
free webcam service (Score:5, Informative)
Cheap + Easy (Score:5, Informative)
After that, just make as lightweight of a autorefreshing page as possible, and then you can just point your phone browser to it. It works very well actually, and VisionGS can archive the shots, so you can have a record or what went on.
Free + Easy (Score:3, Informative)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dorgem/ [sourceforge.net]
Has the built-in web server, or will upload to FTP, and can save frames to a .avi archive for review later. Works with any video for windows compatible source (basically any cam that works with windows, including my GeForce video card's video in jack), and the author is continually updating it.
Tm
Video is nice, but... (Score:2)
I don't have any kids, but I've been pondering how I would go about testing to make sure SIDS doesn't happen.
How about a CO2 and O2 sensor pair that checks to make sure breathing is still going on? I'm guessing it would have to be non-invasive so that the baby doesn't get tangled up, etc.
While you're at it, since I'm in AZ I've also been pondering how to get kids to not-drown in pools. That's probably something of a follow-on project once the child can walk, though.
As for cameras, I know DLink m
Re:Video is nice, but... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Video is nice, but... (Score:3, Informative)
2. Look at the sidebar that has a section labeled Reducing the Risk" [sids.org].
3. Read and digest, particularly the bit at the bottom that discusses home monitoring systems (apnea/bradycardia monitors). Consider that there are thousands of experts in the medical and electronic fields who've been working on this exact problem for years.
Seriously, when it comes to a baby, play it safe. If you can think of it and it can be done, there's likely
Re:Video is nice, but... (Score:4, Interesting)
Ethernet webcam (Score:5, Informative)
Nokia camera... (Score:4, Interesting)
Nokia do a camera that will MMS you the picture it is looking at on demand. Setting up a box with a motion detecting camera is very simple and your only real challenge when streaming it to a mobile is network speed and transcoding.
Best bet is to get dedicated hardware if you want to do this stuff as what you are after is taking a raw MPEG-2 stream in, performing real-time transcoding to less picture quality and then steaming that in real-time over a different protocol. You can do it on a decent server, but why bother when you can pick up decent video cards pretty cheaply these days (not GAMES cards, VIDEO cards, ones with hardware encoders). Or a shitty Web-cam quality is all you can hope for (and you'd probably still need to re-code).
Of course you then have the security challenge of making sure that anyone else can't see in as well (Mr Burglar looks "hey everyone is out"), which means having some form of VPN from your mobile, again these exist but you are getting more complex and expensive.
Beyond there you have the legislative problems of spying on your babysitter (you'd have to tell her or go to court and be rightly sued for invasion of privacy).
I'd just go for the Nokia camera, tell the baby sitter, only put it in the kids rooms (do you care if the babysitter is on the phone or if the kids are okay ?). The rest is very very sad overkill, and if you are going that far surely you'd want RF-ID tags on the kids with biometric sensors and a constant stream of data to go along with the video feed.
So option 1 means - Nokia Camera + MMS capable mobile phone and telling the baby sitter
Option 2 means - you are a sad geek liable to end up in court.
Option 3 means - you really really need help, like now.
Personally I wouldn't trust my kids with someone I felt I had to spy on.
Your rights.. (Score:4, Funny)
I demand a new topic to be immediately made under 'Your rights online' section so we can discuss it through and blame Bill Gates for it.
What's wrong with you? (Score:2)
Do you get your kicks spying on people? Seriously though, do you tell your babysitters that you are secretly taping them? How'd you feel if someone was secretly taping you?
No, what's wrong with you? (Score:2)
I babysat a little when young an
Slow but effective... (Score:5, Interesting)
Basically all you would be doing is opening up a webcam viewer on the computer through VNC and just watch the screen... You won't be getting super fast resolution (depending on speed of connection and machine running the client you'll be looking at around 5 FPS I think) but you will be able to see what's going on. Good luck, and congrats...
Time pressure (Score:2, Insightful)
Have fun!
Just relax (Score:2)
Sooner or later you'll realize that most likely, your child is fine. We turned the baby monitor off when my second child was about 2 months old. He was such a noisy sleeper that we kept going in to check on him a
RFID implants (Score:2, Funny)
Re:RFID implants (Score:2)
My advice... (Score:5, Insightful)
I say skip the geek-tools baby raising. Everyone I know who *has* had kids and taken some obsessive-compulsive child-rearing tactic has ended up in a near nervous breakdown with no life of their own.
If you can't find a reputale local babysitter with references, then leave the kid in the care of a familiy member when you go out. I don't think that staring at 2" square grainy image of the kid in a crib is going to make your evening out all that enjoyable.
If you must have video surveilance, go to http://www.supercircuits.com for the video cameras. Then go to http://www.worthdist.com and get a ChannelPlus channel modulator. This allows you to put the video camera feed(s) on TV channels, so for example you tune any TV to channel 84 and there is the crib (at my house channel 84 is the driveway camera, but I digress.)
Cameras & modulators (Score:3, Interesting)
I have one 3 channel modulator, and one single channel modulat
The Safety Industry (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The Safety Industry (Score:3, Insightful)
I've got two kids and if you can't trust the sitter, find someone else or don't go. Granted, I'm one of the lucky ones, both my wife and I come from large families that all live close by.
The point of getting out as a couple is to enjoy yourself. If you're going to spend the whole time checking up on the kids and none of that time talking to your significant other, your marriage WILL disintegrate.
That being said, If you suspect something is up, by all means set up the monitoring. Then again, if
Ears (no, seriously - ears...) (Score:5, Interesting)
Extrapolation from my fairly recent experience: "...and thus am currently dreaming up all sorts of over the top schemes to monitor the baby."
Reality from my experience: forget it. A radio baby monitor is enough, in fact after a while we stopped using even that because our own ears sufficed just as well. The only over the top thing I actually implemented was using a camcorder's nightshot capability to see if the baby was actually asleep - allowed me to do it without going in the room and waking her up. Even that stopped after about two months.
You won't be able to of course, and this advise will be impossible for you to take but, but...relax. Really. You'll have enough genuine stress from crying etc. without also rigging up monitoring systems which you'll barely use. If the baby is crying at night, check on it (sorry - don't know him/her in your case). If the baby isn't crying at night - leave it alone! If you need a monitoring system for during the day, you're slacking offf - should be giving the baby personal attention of some kind (yourself, your other half, a nursery...).
Honestly - all these things sounded like a great idea to me at the time as well, but come the actual events I just abandoned them as not worthwhile. My own experience? I'm a father of two - one daughter who will be three in January, one son who will be one in a week's time. Hectic does not begin to describe the first few months of both my daugter's life but even more so my son's (when we had the both of them to look afteR), but you do work out a pattern eventually.
Cheers,
Ian
Re:Ears (no, seriously - ears...) (Score:5, Insightful)
I have to second this-- you do _not_ want electronic monitoring. You _have_ to develop "parental radar". Which really means 'hearing'.
By the time your kids are age 2, you should be able to tell where your kids are in the house or yard, regardless of your own location, instantly and subconsciously. Developing 'eyes in the back of your head' is mostly just sensory awareness of the normal kid noise level and position.
If you go with electronic monitoring (sound or video), you'll have trouble later.
You'll have trouble telling where your toddler drifted to if you go to a house not rigged up like yours, since your own hearing won't be trained.
You'll never be able to handle nightmares at age 2 if you used a baby monitor and didn't develop good child-hearing.
You'll never be able to yell to your 4-year old, "stop doing that!" two rooms away (because you heard silence, and silence=mischief) if you're used to direct feeds.
Your six year old will rule your life once he/she realizes you lack the basic totally sensory awareness parents need to develop.
You'll have a harder time finding them when lost in shopping malls, parks, et cetera, if you didn't develop your parental hearing/radar.
Seriously, my hearing is incredibly sensitive, I feel like Daredevil when my kids are involved. Sure, I might still walk into a truck I didn't hear coming like anyone-- but if my kids are driving it, I'll know!
That said, I did run a video camera out the window so I could be in my study and be sure they were okay out back. It was sometimes handy, but you know, I still relied on my own hearing and parental spider-sense to know when trouble was happening.
If you do video, for $40 you can get a camera plus battery that's smaller than a pack of cards, wireless, color, and runs into a TV. So consider setting up a TV _when they are past age 3_ for outside, but really, don't do in-house monitoring, you'll just kill the natural development of your own senses and instincts.
And don't monitor the babysitter. If you can't trust her to watch the kids sans monitoring, you shouldn't hire her at all. If you trust her, enjoy the time you're paying her for by having a child-free excusion!
EAsy (Score:5, Funny)
And if there's anything wrong, you can ssh in.
Oh boy, now I have to say it... (Score:4, Funny)
Imagine a beowulf cluster of those!
*ducks*
Don't do it... (Score:5, Interesting)
IANAL, but... (Score:5, Informative)
Before you start videotaping a third person (a babysitter), shouldn't you check what laws in your area might apply to such monitoring?
When Father was Away on Business (Score:2)
Go low tech (Score:2)
Keep it low tech, simple and easy for you and your wife to install. Don't leave anything open for other people to see either. Your baby is yours and privacy is paramount to raising a healthy child. Don't risk putting up webcams and crap of your innocent child just because your a geek.
dlink web cam works for me (Score:2)
What ever happened to parenting? (Score:5, Insightful)
Night Lights from hell. (Score:2, Informative)
Do you need one? (Score:2)
Overkill but... (Score:2, Informative)
Here's a hint. (Score:2)
Want a good bond with your kid that will last thru all the stupid teenage hijinks? Hold them as an infact, talk to them, tell them stories.. you need LOW tech, not high tech.
Grandpa's Advice (Score:5, Informative)
If your wife nurses, she will most likely be a wreck for the first month. Nursing is terribly hard on her sleep. You get a break but she takes the pain. Treat her with care.
Here's what we did and it worked out pretty well. From about the age of newborn to about two months, we had the baby in a cradle at night in OUR bedroom. That way, after the first few paranoid nights, we relaxed and slept when the baby allowed. For most babies, gaining to about ten pounds leads to sleeping longer at night and if you are a bit lucky, through the night.
Have a plush chair or another cradle setup for the baby out where you will spend the day. I just put casters on our cradle. During that early time the cradle could go where we wanted to be. The baby wants a lot of holding time. Get one of those sling thingies for the baby to be attached to you. They are great.
After the baby was about 2-3 months s/he did crib time in his/her own bedroom in a regular crib that is good until about the age of 2 years. Around then they get athletic enough and smart enough to climb out. While they are not crawling or scooting around, have a really comfortable chair or something in the babies room that you can snooze in comfortably for those times when the baby is ill and your paranoia is off the scale. DON'T BRING THE BABY IN YOUR BED TO SLEEP after it is out of the cradle. If you must provide additional comfort to the child, you go in there.
When the baby moves into his/her own room, now is the time to install audio monitors. My youngest daughter just put one video cam onto the crib for her newborn son. But both of them found that the problem was not the cam but what to do with the cam data. Sending it to their computers made them feel visually tied to their displays. The idea of sending to a handheld or a phone hasn't come up but I suspect the same outcome. The advantage of the audio is that it can run in the background and not require anything more of you than to clip the receiver on your belt or jeans or skirt, I suppose. So, the video has gotten little use but the audio is very useful.
I could write you a ton more detail but the bottom line is that if the child isn't in your immediate presence and your mental health is important to you and you need some surveillance, audio is the way to go. Remember you're not looking for a high fidelity system just something that lets you hear the baby breathing and moving around. You can get systems from Toys R Us and Babies R Us that will do this job admirably.
If this video thing has come up because you are both returning to work, the remark that somebody made about having a babysitter that you need to surveil may be a problem is right on. Your baby is defenseless and long range surveillance won't be anything but evidence if things go wrong. I just got done doing about 3 years of babysitting my older daughter's kids. These little ones can really test a person's self control. You must have someone you trust enough without the surveillance.
Good luck and best wishes to you and your wife on a wonderful adventure that lies before the two of you.
Go low tech (Score:3, Informative)
We actually turn the sound all the way down. Typically the light and the audible cries heard from the room next door (not through the monitor) are enough to wake us. Also, when the audio is turned up if my daughter cries even for a brief moment or makes a peep, my wife wants to immediately rush in. With the audio turned down we still hear the baby, but it makes my wife less anxious. You will have to let your child learn to put him/herself back to sleep. Which bring me to some advice.
There will come a time when you MUST let your child cry it out. At first, yes, your child will wake up every hour- 2 hours for feedings (Conan O'Brien once commented that breast feeding mom's were where most of his viewership was). When our child started on solid food, we let her cry it out. Yes, it is hard at first. There will be an hour plus worth of the worst crying you have ever heard. And it may take a few nights. But then, all of a sudden, your child will sleep through the night. It's as if it were magic. At first, this is unsetteling and you think, "She's not waking up! There must be something wrong!" but you get used to the sweet, sweet sleep you've been missing out on. And SIDS is all but a non-issue once they hit 6 months or are able to turn over. I know there is different schools of thought on getting your baby to sleep through the night. IMHO, I think this is the best way. It teaches them independence. Not dependent on you to help them to go to sleep.
Also, while your wife is on maternity leave, use a basinette or some sleep vessel that will fit in your room. We used ours until she outgrew it. Get one on rollers too so you can move it to different parts of the house.
Be prepared. It's pretty freaky at first. When we came home, we had no help whatsoever (plus the Hospital kicked us out early). It was flu season and my mother-in-law got the flu and all our family members were exposed. The hardest part when we got home was that first few days with all the crying. But you figure it out. It's natural. All these instincts kick in.
Oh and baby blues are real. Just support your wife as best you can. Also, get her this book: The Diaper Diaries: The Real Poop on a New Mom's First Year [amazon.com]. It's pretty damn funny. Sure it's cheesy. But you're a dad now. You're no longer cool.
And I second some of what has been said, get out of the house. You probably won't want to the first few months, but around the 4th month, have a relative come over to take care of the kid. You'll call about a half dozen times while you're on your date.
And some of your non-procreating friends will probably stop hanging out with you.
Anyway, I've rambled on too much. Good luck.
Advice from a father of two... (Score:3, Insightful)
Skip the gadgets, you won't use them. A good quality audio monitor is all you will need and that will be overkill most of the time.
A low quality audio monitor may provide with entertainment from neighbor hood. Ours picked up the guy next doors phone conversation with his lover. Nice guy but more info than I ever wanted to know about him and his friend.
Mini-review Mobi video monitor system (Score:5, Informative)
I looked and looked for DSS monitors in *any* band and couldn't find them. They're all analog (easy eavesdropping) for some reason, but you can get them in all the mobile phone bands.
I ended up buying a Mobi video monitor from SmartHome.com. It's 2.4Ghz analog, but has audio + color video.
The camera has an IR LED array and can be set to "night" mode and does a very good job of illuminating a crib or bassinette in even total darkness. The camera lens swivels up and down and is a fixed-focus lens that provides a surprisingly good image. The unit includes a mounting system with 2 brackets.
The receiver uses a tiny LCD video display (2.5" diagnoal) that's visible in most lighting situations; a 4-5 step contrast adjustment is available. The receiver has an AV out cable (via 4-conductor mini-headphone jack) that breaks out into L/R and composite video (external video looks really good on my 42" TV). The receiver also has a "level" setting that disables the LCD display until a sound from the camera goes above the approximate setting of "LEVEL". Audio is maintained during this no-video-display monitoring. Reception is decent in my 2000 sq ft, 2 level house (I have no Wifi).
Both units can run on 4 AAs or through brick-type wall adapters which are included for both units. I had a spare Radio Shaft universal adapter I use with the camera, and the plug was a tight fit in the space provided. The units can be switched between 3 different channels.
Now the downsides:
The camera's lens swivels up and down, but not side to side. Means it must be mounted "dead on" with the crib. I ended up mounting a post to the crib to give the camera sufficient height to show the baby's face, as well as to keep the camera dead-on straight with the crib. I attached the other mounting bracket to a small peice of plywood and bolted that to a small sping clamp for mounting to the basinette. Ugly, but functional.
The switch for the camera is a tiny DIP switch on the bottom (OFF/ON/NIGHT) -- ideally it would be a front-panel ON/OFF with night mode automatically enabled via adjustable photo sensor. An audio sensor that turns on the transmitter might have been a good low-power solution as well -- don't transmit anything unless there's noise.
Reception isn't perfect, and the farther you go the more likely you are to experience jumps in the picture and noise -- it is analog, afterall. Overall it's pretty good.
Battery power on the receiver is limited if you keep the LCD display on. (I found video monitoring easier than audio monitoring -- no room noise, and a better cue as to whether baby is actually awake or not). If you planned on using both units without their PSUs, consider investing in 16 NiMH cells and enough chargers to keep a set constantly under charge.
I have some small concerns about the AC adapter cord. I have mine tie-wrapped to mounts on the back of my crub mount, and high enough that it shouldn't be reachable until the child is maybe 18 months. Any lower and I'd worry about an AC adapter getting put in a mouth.
Right now (baby is 4 weeks on 10/6) it's really of limited value. We have the basinette in our bedroom, so any noise the baby makes we can hear right away. I will flick on the monitor if the baby makes unusual noises just to see, but about 19 times out of 20, we're picking him up for food/change/comfort in about 2 minutes anyway.
I think it will be of more value when the baby is older and sleeps in its crib in another room regularly. I plan to connect the monitor to our bedroom TV (larger picture, etc) and the camera will be fixed in the crib.
Remote lights (Score:5, Informative)
I have found remote control lighting to be of great value however. You won't need it for an infant, but you may value it with a toddler.
My daughter is 3 years now. She is somewhat afraid of the dark (as I was at that age). So I use the remote light, which can be dimmed and I close her door. After a while, when she is asleep, I can silently turn off the light without entering her room and waking her.
She also has a tendancy to wake around 5am quite afraid of the dark. I don't even have to get out of bed--I keep a remote next to my pillow. I just turn on her light and dim it some, and she calms down quickly.
My wife is disabled, and uses the lights to get my attention when we are on opposite ends of the house. I know a lot of people use bells, but we've found the lights work quite nicely. They were also very helpful before she had enough arm strength to reach a light switch.
And yes, I did buy my lights from the most evil of Internet companies, x10.com. I recently discovered that Radio Shack sells rebranded components that are compatible, which is handy when you need another lamp module.
Canon VB-C10 is the best, but expensive... (Score:3, Informative)
It has an embedded linux system that serves up an applet viewer, so you can use any web browser to connect to it... it's reasonably fast and works well. On my local network it runs 30fps easily.
It's a bit expensive, but I think it's worth it for the peace of mind when travelling, etc.
Pat Niemeyer
Babies can make excellent monitoring devices (Score:3, Funny)
The only really good place to hide the battery is of course - the diaper. Believe me you'll have trouble reusing those later! You might want to go with disposables.
Babies, like Daleks, are generaly thwarted by stairs until older so be careful to select a baby with the right level of mobility for the monitoring mission you have in mind.
If you have a particular mark you want monitored try spearning a little strained peas in an inconspicious place so the baby is prone to follow them.
Good luck!
Re:Thank you! (Score:2)
D-LINK DCS-900 (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, few real child development have little against high tech help. A physical therapist who used to strip and has messed up children is not where I would get advice from.
I use the dcs-900 camera. We also use sound via a 900 MHz monitor (Sound is really what I want). While I have been involved with wifi for years (as a start-up company doing wifi), I already had the room wired for networking. Besides, I prefer NOT having peeping toms be able to look in on the camera.